A salute to risotto at Picco

Risotto is one of those dishes that shows up repeatedly on restaurant menus, and is seldom done well. It’s a challenging dish to produce in a restaurant.

Chefs have devised tricks to make it easier to cook on the line, some by partly cooking before service, and finishing off at the last minute. However, nothing can beat the firm/creamy/velvety texture achieved by starting, stirring and finishing it to order.

It’s an almost impossible task to do it start to finish in a restaurant. That’s why I admire what Bruce Hill does at Picco in Larkspur. He offers the risotto on the half hour, and it always comes out just right. The ingredients for the risotto change every day; I happened to be there last week and he was using butternut squash mixed with the rice along with leaves of fried sage and loads of Parmesan cheese that balanced the natural sweetness of the squash.

That was the take-away memorable dish, but I was also impressed with how good every course was, from the thick juicy sliders with caramelized onions on a toasted bun to the farro-dusted fried prawns with cumin carrots and the bay leaf panna cotta with quince empandas to finish.

I can’t walk by the pizzeria next door without stopping for the soft-serve ice cream with sea salt and olive oil drizzled over the top. The waiter let us order it from next door; however, it wasn’t nearly as good as I remember. The ice cream had an almost airy whipped cream quality, rather than the velvety texture. It seems as if the recipe has changed, or someone wasn’t paying attention.

So next time I’ll have the pizza, go next door for the risotto and skip the ice cream. Not a bad compromise.